The invention relates to cutter head assemblies intended for use in gear cutting operations. The cutter assemblies are designed to receive bar stock type tools having an indexable shank portion and profiled cutting surfaces located at one end. The tools are arranged in slots formed in the periphery of a cutter head in positions projecting from a front face thereof. One or more tools may be located in each slot and in the latter instance, a forward and rearward tool may be defined with respect to a cutting direction.
In gear cutting operations, it is often desirable to utilize a maximum number of cutting tools in a given size cutter head. Accordingly, known cutter assembly arrangements provide for locating more than one cutting tool in a common slot formed in a cutter head. In one known design, a pair of cutting tools are located contiguously within the same slot. This arrangement, however, tends to result in chip packing between succeeding cutting tools thereby inhibiting cutting performance. In a second known cutter assembly design, a spacing shim is spot welded to the cutter head between succeeding cutting tools located in a common slot. Although sufficient clearance is provided between succeeding cutting tools to alleviate the chip packing problem, cutter head manufacture is significantly complicated. Difficulties arising from accurately sizing and locating the spacing shim add cost to the manufacture of the cutter head and may adversely affect accurate positioning of the cutting tool.